Page 70 of Tell Me Your Desires

“Will you two behave, please?” Anya smiled at Kate as she came around the side of the house. “Hey.”

“Anya.” Kate smiled as she turned her attention to Jaime. “Jaime, it’s good to see you up and about. Hey, Derek.”

“Mew.”

Jaime groaned inwardly. Why did Kate have to be nice? “Kate. What brings you back to Reno?”

There. Jaime had been nice, just as Anya had asked.

A friendly tone and a mostly friendly face.

She hoped, anyway. Jaime instinctively reached for Anya’s hand as she rested back against the cushions, but it wasn’t to remind Kate of what was happening here.

Jaime didn’t need to do anything of the kind.

Kate raised the file she held in her hand. “I have a case I could use some help with.” She turned her attention to Anya. “I thought I could pick your brain.”

“The FBI has billions of dollars of technology that can do things like extract DNA from a fingerprint off a shell casing, but you don’t have email or…I don’t know, Zoom?”

“Jaime.” Anya shot Jaime a warning glance, which was softened by a gentle pat on her thigh. “She’s not wrong, Kate. That tells me there’s more to this visit than a case.”

Kate sighed. “I’ve been tasked with persuading you to come back to work for the FBI.”

Jaime’s fingers froze on top of Derek’s head. Did she just hear that right? After the conversation Jaime and Anya had just had, was Kate about to swoop in and steal her away?

Anya stared up at Kate. “Excuse me?” She shook her head slowly as visions of the last time she was an agent ran through her mind. “If Jaime wasn’t stunned into silence, she’d probably ask why I’d ever consider coming back to an organization that threw me under the bus.”

Jaime pointed at Anya, nodding in agreement.

Anya smiled at Jaime, lifting her hand and kissing the back of it before holding it down. “And I’d say…you already have a profiler.”

“You’re right, we do,” Kate agreed. “One that could clearly benefit from your expertise. Which is why the Director wants you to teach. At Quantico.”

Fucking great! Jaime closed her eyes, almost certain that her future with Anya had just been obliterated.

The idea rolled around in Anya’s head. Could she see herself as a teacher? Did she have the patience? Her eyes tracked to Jaime. Her demeanor conveyed such a sense of defeat that it broke Anya’s heart. She thinks I’m going to leave her after everything we’ve just talked about.

“Tell the Director that I appreciate the offer, but I love and am committed to my life here in Reno. So, unless the teaching gig is remote, I’ll have to pass.”

Jaime shot up, immediately regretting the decision to move so fast. Fuck, that hurt. “W-what?”

“Could you give us a minute, Kate?” Anya gestured towards the house. “Feel free to make yourself a cup of that tea you love so much.”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

“Kate?” Anya cleared her throat as Kate turned back. “Was the case real or just an excuse?”

“It’s real. A cold case that’s been nagging at me for a while. I saw what you did with this one and…” She shrugged and disappeared inside the house, with Derek plopping down off the bed and running after her.

“Traitor!” Jaime called out.

“Don’t feel too bad, you know that’s where the food is.

He’s going in there to manipulate her into thinking he’s starving.

” Anya gently took Jaime’s chin in her hand and turned her face towards her.

“If we’re going to work, you’ll have to stop thinking the worst of me before I even get the chance to show you the best of me. ”

A tear rolled down Jaime’s cheek. “I wasn’t thinking the worst of you, babe. I was thinking of what’s best for you.”

“And that would be you.” Anya’s voice was soft, but strong and sincere. “The FBI is my past. You are my now and hopefully my tomorrow and beyond.”

“Hey, I’m yours until you kick me out of here. But I need you to be sure. Not about me, I think I’m pretty solid on that, but about the job. From what I’ve heard about Kate’s new profiler…” Jaime wrinkled her nose. “It does seem like they could use a good teacher.”

Anya smiled. “I gave my conditions. If they really want me, they’ll meet my demands.”

“I sure as hell did.”

“Are you always thinking about sex with me?” Anya teased, shaking her head.

“Are you telling me you’re not always thinking about sex with me?” Jaime narrowed her eyes, laughing when Anya bit her bottom lip and looked away. “Ha! I knew it!”

“Mmhmm. I’m going to go rescue Kate from Derek and take a look at that case she brought. Do you need anything from the kitchen?”

“Um, maybe a snack and juice if it’s not too much?”

Anya leaned in and kissed Jaime. “On it. I’ll send Derek back out to keep you company.”

“Hey, big boy.” Jaime scratched the top of Derek’s head, smiling at the loud purr he gave her in return. “I think your mom really is serious about me. What do you think?”

“Meow.”

“Yeah. Which means it’s time for me to move on from the past, just like she did.

” Derek turned twice in her lap, then flopped down and rolled over, exposing his belly.

Another sign of trust, Jaime thought with a proud smile.

“I think I know exactly how to do that, too.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

She was sitting here, having a conversation with a cat.

“Is this what your mom does? Just sits here and talks to you like you understand everything she’s saying? ”

“Meow.”

“Well, it does help that you answer.” Jaime laughed. “You know, when she first told me about you, I thought you were some dude. I mean, you are a dude, but you’re better than any dude I’ve ever known. Don’t tell Max I said that, yeah?”

“Mew. Meow.”

Jaime took Derek’s response as a promise that her secret was safe with him.

Of course, there would be payment involved in the form of treats, but Jaime would gladly pay that to keep the peace with Max.

“You have no idea how happy I am that you turned out to be a cat and not some boyfriend or husband.”

“Mew. Meow.”

“Ugh. I know! I can’t picture it either.

” Anya and a dude…no, it didn’t fit. “Now, I have this thing coming up. Max and I are getting a couple of silly medals for solving this case.” She bent down to whisper in Derek’s ear.

“They’re giving your mom one too, but I don’t think they’ve told her yet.

” Jaime cleared her throat. “So, do you think she would say yes if I asked her to go with me?”

“Why don’t you ask her and see?”

“Jesus, fuck!” Jaime almost threw Derek from her lap, her heart pounding furiously. “You scared the shit out of me!”

“Sorry.”

“That was a private conversation, by the way.” Jaime splayed a hand across her chest. “Shit, babe. You really did terrify me.”

Anya shook with laughter and quickly set down the juice and apples with peanut butter on the small table next to Jaime. “For a detective, you’re very jumpy?”

“Don’t change the subject. You were spying, and you knew you were going to scare me.” Jaime felt a bit foolish getting caught talking to Derek, though she didn’t know why. Obviously, Anya did the same regularly.

“I wasn’t spying. This is a public space, and I brought you a snack and juice as you asked.”

Jaime peered around Anya and spied the apples with peanut butter. Yummy. “Thanks, babe.” She tugged Anya down for a quick kiss. “Where’s the SAC?”

“You’re welcome,” Anya said, rolling her eyes at Jaime’s nickname for Kate. It was evident that Anya needed to give Jaime a little more time to feel her feelings about Kate before she could move on. “Kate left. There was another reason she made the trek across the country.”

“Oh? It wasn’t just to try and entice you back to Quantico?”

“Nope.” Anya sat next to Jaime and scratched Derek under the chin. “My sweet boy.” She looked up at Jaime. “One of the bodies that was found using Teddy’s videos has been identified. It turns out, she’s a resident of Reno. Kate is here to inform her family.”

“Damn. I was selfishly hoping none of them would be from here. And now I feel like an ass for being…well, a bit of an ass to her.”

“Believe it or not, she understands.”

Jaime sighed. “I don’t know why I’m so grumpy around her.”

“Yes, you do. She betrayed me, and she used to see me naked.” Anya bit her lip as Jaime groaned and threw her arm over her eyes.

“Yeah, I didn’t need to hear that!”

“I’m just saying, those things are hard for a new lover to overlook.

But, hey,” she cupped Jaime’s cheek and leaned in for a soft kiss.

“You’re the only one who gets to see me naked now.

And the past is just that. I’ve spent way too much time hiding because of it.

I’m ready to step out of the past and live in the now with you.

If we keep focusing on what came before, we’ll miss everything waiting for us in the future. ”

A lazy smile spread on Jaime’s face. “That’s really beautiful, babe.

And you’re right. Living in the past is exhausting.

” Jaime was ready now. She’d made her decision.

It was time to let go of the past completely and give Anya everything she deserved.

Someone stable and someone who could love her unconditionally.

“There’s something I need to do. Will you come with me? ”

Anya had no idea where Jaime wanted her to go, but she was all in. “Of course.” She narrowed her eyes. “Is this what you and Derek were discussing?”

Jaime laughed. “No. Well, yes. Kinda, but no. It was one of the things we discussed. We do have multiple conversations, you know.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of Derek’s ability to hold more than one conversation.”

“Right. Well, the private conversation you walked in on was about some fancy dinner thing that the Commissioner is holding.”

“Your medal ceremony?” Anya guessed. Jaime hadn’t mentioned it to her yet, but she had heard rumblings of the special day through the grapevine. The grapevine’s name being Rosanna.

“Y-you know about that? I was going to tell you about it, I just—”